Samsung recently conducted an audit of 105 of its Chinese suppliers over a four-week period. It did this after China Labor Watch reported on the hardware maker's suppliers, and decided to correct any problems immediately.

About 121 certified Samsung employees conducted the audit, and while they failed to find any instances of child labor, the employees did discover excessive overtime hours, a system of fines for lateness or absences, and inadequate management of supplier companies with copies of labor contracts.

To address these issues and prevent anything else from happening, Samsung has announced a new set of rules for hiring and employee management within its suppliers in China.

Currently, Samsung is making sure all hiring candidates are interviewed in person to detect fake IDs; demanding suppliers to buy electronic devices that detect fake IDs, and deploying special guidelines for banning child labor.

By the end of 2012, Samsung plans to get rid of the fines/penalty system, prohibit any hiring discrimination, force suppliers to offer adequate safety equipment/first aid kits, train employees about sexual harassment and physical/verbal abuse and install hotlines for employees to anonymously report abuse.

For the excessive working hours, Samsung will create a long-term plan for resolving this issue by the end of 2012 and force suppliers to cap temporary workers at a schedule that is 30 percent of full-time employees. It will also tailor plans to fit each supplier and financially support the Chinese suppliers for extra hiring and equipment.

Earlier this year, The New York Times published its second installment of its iEconomy series, which focused on the treatment of workers at Apple's suppliers over in China. This included overtime, low pay and poor conditions. Apple and Foxconn have been working with the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to patch these issues up.

I dont know any more than the info above. My guess is, they got wind of the same issue and proactively did an audit before it got out to the press and made a PR issue like Apple had. Audits are pointless anyhow, other than the PR aspect. Lets for the sake of argument say that Samsung and Apples suppliers are both using child labor. It's not really Apple or Samsungs issue, but again PR... So, here is all that happens

[Apple/Samsung rep]: "OK supplier, we are coming tomorrow for an audit[supplier]: OK, we will see you tomorrow.[supplier]: after off phone, notifies manufacturing to make sure all underage workers do not show up tomorrow and to hide any other embarrasing items...

Then the audit passes. proving nothing but satiating the BS PR trip that it started out to satiate.

You know nothing more than what was written above because its the first place you've come across the story and have no basis for comparison, you wouldn't be inventing possible scenarios to make them look better if you had.

It's pretty simple, I even quoted a balanced, unbiased source (not this joke of a news source obviously). I don't think it's very well understood how human ethics work in Korea but they clearly have contempt for Chinese workers over and above modern ethics put in place by the West elsewhere.

The article above just mentioned that Samsung did an audit to insure the same thing that happened to Apple, doesn't happen to them (which is essentially just the PR fuff). It mentioned Apple and showed how Apple was at least doing the right thing and addressing it, even though its not their company, its a supplier of Apples.

What is your point? You are only even posting at all because Samsung is a direct competitor of "the precious". You get all bent out of shape because its Apple and nothing even negative was said, or implied, as I already posted, if anything it put Apple in a positive light for addressing an issue that essentially was not their issue or their fault. I swear, you cant even thing straight through your Apple haze.